I’m springin’ forward.
Are you springin’ forward?
All God’s chillin’ springin’ forward.
See you in the mornin’ Bethel family….
WARNING: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS WRITING TO FOLLOW.
Years ago I was asked to speak in Illinois for a week at a gathering of churches. Dan and Wes went with me. We stayed in the basement a farmhouse owned by an elderly lady from the church. We enjoyed good eats and fellowship. It was spring.
At the time we lived in a huge hotel that housed our ministry at the time, so I was always eager to have the boys out with me for a week. I ran in the park every day and the boys rode their bikes.
I cherish the memory and miss these boys who have families of their own and churches of their own and live far away in New Mexico and Texas.
I think it will be spring there soon and Bluebonnet time in Texas. I don’t know when spring arrives the high desert of New Mexico but I’m sure the locals will welcome it like we do when it fully arrives here about halfway through the month of May.
Dan, the big boy is a sheriff’s deputy and has a fine Christian wife and three fine boys. Wes, the smaller one, is a plumber and has a fine Christian wife and two daughters. I have lots of plans for the future, but when I come across these old pictures it wrecks me.
One more memory for those who are still reading:
While we were staying in the basement of the old farm house we were getting ready for church one night and Wes started screaming bloody murder and calling his brother every possible name a pastor’s kid can get away with.
“What happened?” I asked
“He shot me with that…” Wes said, and he was red in the face angry.
Daniel was laughing and standing there with a decanter of wretched strong perfume that was probably bottled toward the end of World War I.
It sounds funny but I weep and laugh at the same time as I type these words in my quiet house I love where I can read and write and study without a whisper of interruption. The only sound is the quiet flutter of the keyboard as my fingers move over the keys and the sound of the winter wind in woods across the road.
I keep telling myself. The boys are doing now what I loved so much. They are raising their families. They won’t realize until they are my age how much they will miss it.
Lois will be home soon. A good man would make dinner, but I think I will lay out the ingredients for her to make a homemade pizza. We will watch a program and probably talk about the kids and grandkids… and set our clocks forward so we are not late for church…
All God’s chillin’ springin’ forward tonight.
Oh. And don’t feel bad for Wesley. He up-graded his wheels since this picture was taken… (The other picture is his current ride).
Bittersweet Farm
March 12, 2022
